Villa spoils Chelsea's gritty comeback

Chelsea went ahead with a Frank Lampard penalty but Villa levelled with its own penalty by Ashley Young and went ahead just after half-time with an Emile Heskey header.

Didier Drogba forced home an equaliser after 84 minutes and captain John Terry thought he had won it for Chelsea when he scored in the 89th.

Villa, which had been sliding towards the relegation zone on the back of its own dire run, fought back again, though, and terrible defending allowed Ciaran Clark to ghost in unmarked and head the equaliser in injury time.

In fifth spot

The result left Chelsea in fifth place on 35 points, one behind Tottenham Hotspur and four behind Arsenal. Manchester United and Manchester City lead the way with 41 points.

Meanwhile on Saturday, Arsenal succeeded where Manchester United failed days earlier to become only the second team to win at St Andrew's in 30 games with a 3-0 victory over Birmingham City.

It was the perfect response to the disappointment of throwing away points in a midweek draw against Wigan on Wednesday and the taunts of Sir Alex Ferguson, who had provocatively claimed following United's 1-1 draw that no team gets an easy game against Alex McLeish's combative Birmingham side.

In stark contrast to United's troubles though, this was as facile a victory as Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger could have wished for as Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasris telepathic understanding was elevated to new heights against opponents who seem to have relished causing the Gunners discomfort and embarrassment in recent meetings.

The results: Chelsea 3 (Lampard 23-pen, Drogba 84, Terry 89) drew with Aston Villa 3 (Young 41-pen, Heskey 47, Clark 90+1); Birmingham 0 lost to Arsenal 3 (van Persie 13, Nasri 58, Johnson 66-og); Liverpool 2 (Torres 49, Cole 90) bt Bolton 1 (Davies 43); Man City 1 (Johnson 34) bt Blackpool 0; Stoke 2 (Jones 23, Jagielka 69-og) bt Everton 0; Sunderland 3 (Welbeck 11, Bent 19, Gyan 89) bt Blackburn 0; Tottenham 1 (Bale 42) bt Fulham 0; West Ham 2 (Zubar 51-og, Sears 79) bt Wolves 0 . — Agencies